wine users - Jul 2008 - Re: Winelib: How can I compile a Borland C++ Builder application

N?stor Amigo Cairo wrote:
> So I will need to rewrite the application to run on Linux, but this
> sounds strange, doesn't it?? I have not completely understood then the
> purpose of winelib. Do you mean that it is not possible to build an
> application from source (written using Win32 API) using gcc on Linux
> and executing it natively??
Correct. You can't run it directly only with Wine. (binfmt does not count)

You can't just link with winelib and make your app Linux native. Wine
implements totally different API that requires an environment to run in. And
Wine is that environment.

Few examples:
1. win32 threads and posix threads are totally different things. They can't
be mixed or exchanged. Same applies to most synchronization primitives.
2. POSIX does not have anything close to what win32 handle is.
3. File system name space.
4. Registry is totally alien to *nix but it's a must for any windows app
(even if it's not using it directly).

None of those things can be magical created by linking to a library.

Winelib allows you to compile a Win32 application to an ELF binary that can be
run directly on Linux (provided the winelib is installed). But, if I understand
correctly, vitamin wouldn't call such an application native, as the winelib
is quite a big dependency (e.g. your application will still create the ~/.wine
wineprefix). However, technically it will be a correct native binary and it
should be possible to debug it using Linux native debuggers.

A bigger problem can be the VCL. It uses some Borland's C++ extensions (like
properties and events) that are not handled by gcc. Also, I think winelib
doesn't allow linking to binary DLLs (I think only the builtin *.dll.so and
Linux native *.so), so you would need also to recompile VCL into a *.dll.so and,
due to the mentioned extensions, I don't think it will be possible. Thus, I
don't think it will work as winelib without some kind of a rewrite of the
GUI.

You can check, however, if this works under Wine. Then you can load the binary
vcl.dll and your binary compiled with Borland's compiler. There is a high
probability it will work. AFAIK big apps ported using Wine usually ship an *.exe
and the Wine runtime.